


Pinch

by Bill_Longbow



Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Fluff, Jarvis (Iron Man movies) Lives, M/M, Post-Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, not canon compliant after that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-02
Updated: 2018-03-02
Packaged: 2019-03-26 00:43:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,813
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13846464
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bill_Longbow/pseuds/Bill_Longbow
Summary: Tony receives a visitor in the tower, who experiences a nasty pinch. Of course Tony will do anything in his power to help him.





	Pinch

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Politzania](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Politzania/gifts).



> Written for the lovely Politzania who gave the prompt: Pinch

“Sir. I'm experiencing systematic blackouts, ranging between 7.8 and 15.2 seconds in duration.”

 Tony put his screwdriver down and sat up straight. Huh, faster than he had anticipated.

 “Thanks, J. Do we have a location?”

 “Eastern stairwell at the moment.”

“Good boy, JARVIS, notify me if he changes direction.”

 “Of course, sir. And I've taken the liberty of taking countermeasures sigma nu omega.”

 “Excellent, this is why you're my favourite.”

 “If you say so.”

 Tony grinned and blew a kiss at one of JARVIS’ cameras.

 This was sooner than he had expected, it made sense though, with Cap and the spy twins out on a mission. He got back to work. He was fairly certain he could increase the output of his boot thrusters by 2.1 percent, and he was currently taking the whole left boot apart.

 A discreet blinking in the corner of his eye told him his guest was about to enter the workshop via a vent above the garage part. The man didn't make any sound as he touched down on the ground, which was impressive considering Tony estimated him to be around 200 pounds doing a nine foot drop.

 “There's a door you know,” Tony said as he yanked a stubborn wire out of the boot. He turned around to face the man.  

 “Where's the fun in that?” James grinned, instantly transforming him from the world's scariest assassin to just a guy from Brooklyn. Well, not just any guy, Tony mused, he must've been pretty extraordinary to begin with.

 James sauntered over to lean against the workbench and Tony bent down to set to work again.

 “You're getting sloppy, J intercepted you at the third floor already,” Tony teased. It was a bit of a game between them. Tony and JARVIS would update after every visit and James would try his hardest to bypass their new security measures. One time James had reached the 64th floor undetected by scaling the outside of the building. After, Tony had yelled at him for ten minutes straight, and that was the end of that.

 “Meh, I was easy on you this time.” James had picked up a screwdriver and started to play with it, twirling it in intricate patterns between his fingers, faster and faster.

 “Sure, tell yourself that, Frosty. Show off.” The last he muttered under his breath but out off the corner of his eye he saw James smirk.

 “What can I do for you? I didn't expect you for at least another couple of weeks.”

 It had been nearly a year ago that James had broken into the tower, gaunt and scruffy, his mind not yet truly his own, and his metal arm a dead weight on his shoulder.

 That first time Tony had been a mixture of petrified and insanely curious. JARVIS had only detected the soldier when he entered the vent system and there was no way of knowing who was at the reins of his mind until he opened his mouth. So when the soldier dropped down onto the floor of the workshop Tony had made sure to have both repulsors and five different armours pointed at him. The man had held up his flesh hand and said “I'd like to unarm myself, but well…” with a shrug and a smirk, and Tony had been in love ever since.

 James started visiting him regularly after that, every five or six weeks, give or take. Every visit he was more himself, more a person and less a person shaped void. They didn't talk about what James did between visits, but he would sometimes bring a datastick with valuable information about Hydra’s attempts to regroup, and on one occasion a box shaped artifact Tony had yet to discover the purpose of (or manage to open, but no need to tell James that).

 He would inevitably be banged up, so Tony would repair and maintenance the arm and give him upgrades to his armour and tech.

 James put down the screwdriver and proceeded to pick up random objects and putting them down again. “The arm has been acting up a bit, it's like… there's a pinch? In the upper arm, thought you might have a look.” James was awfully casual about it, but Tony detected a tension in the soldier that he couldn't explain. The arm looked like it had when he had last seen it, which was weird because the only times the arm malfunctioned was when it was literally shooting sparks. His tech didn't _pinch_.

 “Sure, take a seat, cupcake, I'll be right there.” He left the boot for what it was and rolled over in his chair to his cabinet with tools he only used on James' arm. James sat down on the ratty, old couch where he felt most comfortable and Tony heard him take off his coat and hoodie. Tony prayed to the pantheon James was still wearing a shirt. He hadn’t slept for almost 30 hours, and he wasn't convinced his brain wouldn't short circuit when faced with a topless super soldier.

 He tried to sort out the tools he most likely needed, but gave up and just pushed the whole cabinet to where James sat watching him bemusedly. Thankfully he was wearing a shirt today.

 “Been awhile since you slept?” He smirked, making no effort to help. In fact, he leaned back against the couch and slung one arm over the back.

 Tony looked up from where he was pushing to roll his eyes. “Shut up, I'm being efficient. I've always wanted a cabinet more in that area,” he waved at the couch, “instead of here,” a wave at where most of his tools and the largest workbench were. “And I figured, why not now, yolo you know.” He gave the cabinet one final shove and decided it was close enough. He realised he now had to leave the cabinet here for at least a few months so James wouldn't laugh in his face. Or maybe pretend Dum-E had moved the thing back, that could work.

 “If you say so.” The man was already laughing. “You realise you think out loud when you're tired, don't you?”

 Tony pretended to search for a screwdriver while he bit his lower lip. Traitorous mouth. When he chanced a look James didn't seem offended, if anything he looked fond at Tony, but quickly looked away when he noticed him watching. Huh.

 Deciding to do some reconnaissance first, he sat down next to James on the couch. “Okay, show me the movement where it pinches.”

 James did something complicated with his arm, twisting and rotating both upper and lower arm in several directions.

 “You got that, J?” To his quick scrutiny this seemed to come down to all movements imaginable.

 “Of course, sir.”

 “Great. Buckaroo, can you now move it without any of the pinching?”

 James did a few simple gestures with his hand.

 “I'm glad masturbating wasn't a problem,” Tony grinned, but James looked away instead of laughing, like Tony thought he would. Did he just blush?

 “Sorry, no adult jokes, strictly PG from now on.” He made a grabby movement for the arm. “Gimme, I'll have a look.”

 The second part of his experiment was going over the metal plating of the arm, from shoulder to wrist to check for external damage, but just like he thought, the arm was in pristine condition. The rest of James however was another matter. During Tony's examination, which consisted of gently stroking his fingers over the material, James’ posture became more rigid and he angled his legs a bit away from Tony, leaving him in an uncomfortable pose. When Tony peeked a look James was biting on his lower lip, hard, just like he had to silence himself.

 Tony couldn't say he was unaffected himself. They had been doing this dance for a while now. Actually from the first time they met. James seemed to enjoy flirting just as much as Tony did, and where at first it had been a game to outdo each other, it felt increasingly less funny and more… loaded. At least to him. They would sit closer together during maintenance like this, they would incorporate more casual (not so casual) touches. And now James had apparently made up a discomfort to be able to come to the tower after barely two weeks. It made Tony's heart flutter.

 He took James’ metal hand gently in his and turned to face him properly. “I've been wanting to say this for a while now.” He looked away, suddenly shy, which was ridiculous, he was Tony Stark for Tesla’s sake, he didn't do shy.

 He swallowed and soldiered on. “I er, I like having you around. I wouldn't mind if you dropped by more often. Or went away a bit less, whatever suits your fancy. I might've designed you a floor? So, you know, you could stay there, instead of nap on this couch. It's well away from the other Avengers, it's er, a secret floor I had built in between here and the Hulk floor. It's not on any of the plans and I killed the crew who built it. Kidding, kidding! You know I'm kidding right? Anyway, it's yours if you--”

 The barrage of words was mercifully cut off when James kissed him, and Tony knew he looked as surprised as he felt, judging by James' chuckle.

 “Okay, wow, I can… this I can work with,” he muttered, pulling James closer and _kissing_ him. With tongue and teeth and the works. See, he didn't do shy, he did mind blowing.

 When they finally came up for air Tony found that he had practically crawled onto James' lap and he settled there more comfortably, relishing in the feel of James’ arms around him. “James?”

 “Hmm?” The soldier was rubbing his cheek against Tony's hair like the oversized housecat that he really was.

 “I didn't hear a yes…”

 “It's a ‘I'm not gonna live here, but I'll leave my toothbrush,” James drawled, kissing Tony's temple and moving lower, trailing kisses down his cheek and jaw.

 “That's fair,” Tony shivered and tipped his head to the side to give James more space. “Just know you don't have to fake a pinch when you want to visit.”

 “What?” The kissing had stopped and James pushed him a bit away to look at him.

 “You know…” Tony prodded James arm. “The pinch,” he said with air quotes.

 James looked angry and fond at the same time as he deposited Tony back on the couch. “Open it up. Come on, open it.” He gestured at the tools and Tony reluctantly obliged.

 He felt very silly when he found a minute screw in the innards of the arm, that he recognised as belonging to one of Dum-E’s play kits.

 “Oops?”

 The revenge kissing made it totally worth it though.

**Author's Note:**

> Come say hi on [Tumblr](http://bill-longbow.tumblr.com) or join us on the [ Stuckony discord server ](https://discord.gg/jtXcc3n) for all things Tony, Bucky and Steve!


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